Monthly Headlines Low Loonie Not Increasing Canadian Manufacturing Employment... Yet. From June to July, total employment fell by 600 (-0.3%) to 236,500 on a seasonally adjusted basis. i While full-time employment rose 1,100 (+0.5%), this was outweighed by a loss of 1,700 (-5.2%) part-time jobs in July. The unemployment rate dropped 0.4 points to 11.9% as employment fell marginally for all groups. Female employment fell by 2,300 (-1.9%), due mainly to a drop in part-time jobs, while male employment rose by 1,800 (+1.5%), mostly accounted for by growth in full-time jobs. Year over year, total employment down -0.5%. ii After reaching peak employment in 2013, for the most part employment has been on a steady decline ever since on a year over year basis, with the exception of June 2015. A contracting labour force has helped keep the unemployment rate fairly steady at about 12%, hiding the negative trend. July s employment figures are 1,300 (-0.5%) less than in July 2014. Source(s): Statistics Canada, Cansim Table 282-0087, Seasonally Adjusted Collaborative Applied Research in Economics www.mun.ca/care 1
Across Canada, total employment grew by 600 (+0.0%) from June to July. iii While employment grew in only two provinces, 21,700 (+0.5%) in Quebec, and 3,100 (+0.7%) in Nova Scotia, this growth was just enough to neutralize negative growth elsewhere. Employment in Saskatchewan fell -7,400 (-1.3%) and in Alberta by -4,300 (-0.2%), while employment in Ontario did not change. Source(s): Statistics Canada, Cansim Table 282-0087, Seasonally Adjusted Marginal growth in goods-producing industry stymied by decline in services-producing. iv Weak growth across all sectors in the goods-producing industry in Newfoundland and Labrador resulted in a slight gain of 300 (+0.5%) jobs, led by a boost of 500 (+4.4%) manufacturing jobs from June to July this year. While employment in the services producing sector fell by 1,000 (-0.5%), there were substantive gains in health care and social assistance (1,800) and business, building, and other support services (1,400). This was counteracted by a 1,500 decline in accommodations and food services and generally weak growth in other sectors. Decline of employment concentrated in public sector. v From June to July, employment in the Newfoundland and Labrador public sector fell by 2,400 (-3.9%) to 59,100, marking July as the third consecutive month of negative growth in this sector. Private sector employment grew by 1,300 (+0.8%) to 155,400 while selfemployment rose a slight 400, helping to counter losses in the public sector. Across Canada, public and private sector employment fell by -0.2% from June to July. Collaborative Applied Research in Economics www.mun.ca/care 2
Sudden drop in accommodations and food services employment. vi Employment in accommodations and food services has been on a positive trend over the past 10 years. In July 2015, 15,000 people were employed in this industry, up 10.3% from July 2005 s 13,600 employed. Compared to a year ago, employment has grown by 200, or 1.4%. However, as the diagram below shows the industry exhibits major medium and short-term fluctuations in employment. Our suggestion would be to only follow the long-term trends for this industry in our Province. Significant decline of manufacturing employment over the past decade show hints of reversal. vii From July 2005 to July 2015 employment in manufacturing fell by 6,000, or -33.5%. After bottoming out in 2010 following the 2008/09 recession, employment in the industry has been fairly bumpy, gaining ground in 2012 before decreasing again in 2013. 2015 has seen some positive growth in the industry, with employment rising by 500 (4.4%) from June to July in 2015. Manufacturing in Newfoundland and Labrador is disproportionately represented by fish processing relative to Canada but also includes other diverse industries such as refining, paper manufacturing and breweries. Collaborative Applied Research in Economics www.mun.ca/care 3
Manufacturing employment continues its slightly negative path. viii Since 2005 employment in the manufacturing sector has fallen by nearly 500,000 (-34.0%) across Canada. Ontario and Quebec lost the bulk of these jobs, shedding 322,000, and 131,000 over the same time period, respectively. Most of these cutbacks occurred between 2005 and 2010, and Canadian employment in manufacturing has stayed fairly steady at about 10% of total employment ever since. Year to date, employment in manufacturing in Canada fell -0.4% from 2014. ix As the economy ominously contracts, optimists cling to the lower loonie to boost the Canadian manufacturing sector. This, however, will take time, as made evident in the slightly negative growth of manufacturing employment thus far this year. From January to July there has been some employment growth in Atlantic Canada, with New Brunswick adding 2,200 more jobs, and British Columbia nearly 9,000. However, this was stumped by larger losses in Ontario (-7,800), Quebec (-4,000), and Saskatchewan (-3,000). Collaborative Applied Research in Economics www.mun.ca/care 4
Average weekly wages in Newfoundland and Labrador fall by 1.0% in May. x Month-over-month wages in the province fell $10.21 (-1.0%) to $1010.95 in May. Wages in the goods-producing industry fell by $3.46 (-0.2%) to $1386.48, while wages In the services-producing industry fell by a similar $3.43 (-0.4%) largely due to a decline of education wages, which fell -14.8% from $1217.05 in April to $1037.07 in May. Significant wage growth over the past decade brings Newfoundland and Labrador wages above the Canadian average. xi In May 2005, average weekly wages across all sectors in Newfoundland and Labrador were $681.50, 7.1% less than the Canadian average of $733.27. Over the past ten years wages in this province have grown by 48.3%, reaching $1010.95, while Canadian wages have grown by 29.3% to $948.15 over that same period. This growth has resulted in average weekly wages in Newfoundland and Labrador to be the second highest in Canada, 6.6% more than the Canadian average. Source(s): Statistics Canada, Cansim Table 281-0063 i Table 2820087- Labour force survey estimates (LFS), by sex and age group, seasonally adjusted and unadjusted, monthly ii iii iv Table 2820088- Labour force survey estimates (LFS), by sex and age group, seasonally adjusted and unadjusted, monthly v Table 2820089 - Labour force survey estimates (LFS), employment by class of worker and sex, seasonally adjusted and unadjusted, monthly (persons), vi Table 2820088- Labour force survey estimates (LFS), by sex and age group, seasonally adjusted and unadjusted, monthly vii viii ix x Table 2810063 - Employment and average weekly earnings including overtime (SEPH), seasonally adjusted, for all employees by industries classified using the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), monthly xi Collaborative Applied Research in Economics www.mun.ca/care 5